The glory years of Jose Lima

Jose Lima, who passed away at age 37 yesterday from a heart attack, mostly wasn't anything special during his career. But, for two years he was one of the best pitchers in baseball.

During his career, Lima appeared to be a bad pitcher. In his career, he was 89-102 with a 5.26 ERA. But, from 1998 to 1999, he had 2 very good years. In 1998, he burst on to the scene after 2 sub-par years as a reliever, in 1996 for the Tigers and 1997 for the Astros. But, in 1998 with the Astros, he was converted into a starter and had a great year, going 16-8 with a 3.70 ERA and 169 K's in 33 starts and 233.1 IP. He averaged over 7 innings per start, striking out 6.5 batters per 9 innings and walking just 1.2. His 5.28 K/BB ratio was the best in the NL. He didn't get any Cy Young votes that year, but no one on the list posted an ERA over 2.90. (Tom Glavine won the 1998 NL Cy Young award, and Trevor Hoffman finished 2nd.)

In 1999, Lima had a great first half, going 13-4 with a 3.23 ERA and 96 K's in 19 starts and 139.1 IP and was named to the NL all-star team. He pitched 1 inning in the all-star game, giving up no runs on just 1 hit. His 2nd half wasn't as good as he went 8-6 with a 4.04 ERA and 91 K's in 16 starts and 107 IP. Still, overall on the year, Lima went 21-10 with a 3.58 ERA and 187 K's in 35 starts and 246.1 IP. He finished 4th in the NL Cy Young voting to Randy Johnson, Mike Hampton, and Kevin Millwood. It was an incredible year for him. He was so good that his salary was doubled in 2000 to over 5 million dollars. But, he never lived up to that contract.

In 2000 he went just 7-16 with a 6.65 ERA. He continued to struggle in '01 and '02, going 10-18 between the 2 years with a 6.18 ERA. He showed some flashes of his former glory in '03, going 8-3 with a 4.91 ERA. In '04, Lima finally put it back together. He went 13-5 with a 4.07 ERA and 93 K's in 24 starts, 12 relief appearances, and 170.1 IP. It wasn't all-star quality, but it appeared he could at least be a decent pitcher. But, he finished up his MLB career with 5-16 with a 6.99 ERA with the Royals in '05, and an 0-4 record and a 9.87 ERA with the Mets in '06. After toiling in the minors in '07 and '08, he was done.

Jose Lima was a great pitcher, but just for a brief time. Every other season of his career besides 1, he was a bad pitcher. But, for those 2 years, he was a great pitcher, one of the best in the NL.

(Lima reportedly was on the list of the 103 names who tested positive for steroids in '03. Did he juice and that was the reason he was so good for just 2 years? I can't say for sure, but that definitely was a possibility.)